Category: Assessment News

Pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their A level results today and overall, pass levels have fallen slightly but top A and A* grades are up. A-level entry numbers remained stable, whilst the number of AS-level entries dropped significantly. Find out more about trends in entry level numbers here.

In September 2016, progress data for primary schools was made available on the Tables Checking website. This data shows how a school performed in the new progress measures following the 2016 key stage 2 national tests.

The DfE has released scoring guidance, materials and answer sheets for the 2017 phonics screening check. These materials will help teachers and children become familiar with the phonics screening check, and enable teachers to score performance once the check has been administered.

The 2017 phonics screening check threshold mark is 32. Teachers should check each pupil’s mark against the thresholds to establish whether they have achieved the expected standard.

On 6th June 2017 the Department for Education have publicly released the test materials from this year’s Key Stage 1 national tests. These include test papers and mark schemes for Maths, English reading and English grammar, spelling and punctuation sat by KS1 pupils in May 2017.

On 6th June the DfE released the 2017 key stage 1 scaled score conversion tables. The tables show each of the possible raw scores on the 2017 key stage 1 tests. To convert each child’s raw score to a scaled score, you can look up the raw score and read across to the appropriate scaled score. A scaled score of 100 or more shows the pupil has met the expected standard in the test.

What has changed since last year?

In reading, the score needed has increased from 22 out of 40 in 2016 to 25 out of 40 this year.

In GPS, there has been a slight drop from 25 out of 40 to 24 out of 40.

In maths, children are expected to get 36 out of 60, a drop from 37 out of 60 in 2016.

On 22nd May 2017 the Department for Education have publicly released the test materials from this year’s Key Stage 2 national tests. These include test papers and mark schemes for Maths, English reading and English grammar, spelling and punctuation sat by KS2 pupils in May 2017. Continue reading →

On 30th March 2017, the Department for Education launched consultations on the future of assessment in primary schools and on assessing primary school children working below the standard of the national tests.

The interim frameworks are to support teachers in making robust and accurate judgements for pupils at the end of key stage 2 in 2017. The interim teacher assessment frameworks are for 2016 to 2017 only. The Department for Education is evaluating options for future years.